Old Fic gets a New Life
by Kimbo aka Diona
Summary: Old idea that I had scraped. Now, with my matured writing style, I'm trying it again. The clishe' 'new gundam pilot' and some HeeroDuo relationship development on the side, a little later. New Evil phsyco to fight against, and some internal problems
1. A Call to arms

**WN**: I still have an issue with formatting, so it's going to stay pretty plain, text wise. But at least the paragraphs are seperated.

* * *

Quatre looked around at all the cheerless faces. His friends had not looked so grim since before the end of the war. That is, all except for Heero, and even the stone faced wonder seemed more dismal than usual.

"You've all heard about the attacks on the colonies." Duo began, taking the initiative. "Well, they've gotten worse." With a sigh, he shuffled through the small pile of papers that were in front of him. He glanced at Heero, leaning against the wall behind him, looking for moral support. Duo found none. "A lot worse then they should, considering the military's explanation of a 'weak radical group'." Duo bit his lip, pausing to look over the papers in his hand.

Heero took up the silence. "The group is strong. Whoever they are. We are being sent to stop them. No press, no civilians. We will live out of Howard's ship." Once the few sentences that had to be spoken were done, Heero let his head fall forward and his eyes close. He didn't want to see his more pacifistic companions react to the news.

"We leave in two days. Wing Zero and Death Scythe are already in orbit. Sand Rock is being launched in a few hours; Shenlong and Heavy Arms will be up before we are. They'll all be kept in carriers so civilians, and the enemy, don't know we're coming." Duo's frown became more apparent as he stuffed the papers back into their folder.

* * *

Duo stumbled into the small, private galley the gundam pilots were sharing on Howard's ship, and headed straight for the coffee pot. Through half closed eyes he was able to see the digital readout of the clock. "I just fell asleep..." He muttered to himself, managing to catch a mug out of the cabinet and pour himself some of the life giving black fluid. "Mmm, caffeine." 

While Duo was pursuing his morning drink, Heero had seated himself at the table. The braided boy nearly lost his coffee and his head when he tried to sit in the chair Heero already occupied.

"Sorry!"

"Hn..."

Heero scowled at Duo, but it didn't keep the small smile off the American boy's face. Be it from the coffee or the thought of irritating Heero, one could not be sure.

A miraculously alert Wufei was the next to take a seat at the table, followed closely by an equally awake Trowa. Duo simply sat in a morning stupor, waiting for someone else to talk for a change.

Quatre was only a few minutes behind his friends, with Howard in tow. Acquiring his own mug of dark roast, the blonde let the ship's owner do the talking.

"G'morning boys. Nice to see you all up so early."

Howard was just to cheerful for Duo's groggy mind. "It's not even two in the morning. Why am I awake?"

Howard laughed. "That's two in the afternoon on my time, my friend." Duo managed to mutter something about rocket-lag before Howard went on. "To business. A few unforeseen technical complications have put us a touch behind schedule. So, this is going to be quick. The enemy has managed to block communications with a transport shuttle that was headed our way."

"What was on the shuttle?" Quatre asked, face in the steam rising from his mug.

A small muscle in Howard's lip twitched, giving away his otherwise intangible hesitation. "Some supplies we need. There won't be another chance to replace them for weeks...We need you guys to get the shuttle back."

Heero narrowed his eyes at the old man, considering for a second how necessary it was that the pilots knew what was aboard the transport. He found it necessary enough to question command. "What exactly was aboard the freighter?"

Avoiding eye contact, Howard ecohed his initial explanation.

"What was aboard the freighter?" Heero repeated coldly.

Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, Howard met Heero's eyes. "Another Gundam. One that wasn't finished in time to be of any use during the war. The systems were too advanced for even the good doctors to finish it on schedule."

"Is the pilot with it?" Trowa asked.

Nodding, Howard looked troubled. "Dannie's aboard. Taken by surprise. Probably captive or still unconscious in the carrier. They obviously haven't realized what is in the cargo bay, or it would have been moved already."

"How long has he been out there?" Duo was instantly awake. Sleep deprived or not, it was time to take action. "And when do we leave?"

"We lost communications an hour ago, and just pinpointed the location. You leave in ten minutes, or as soon as we get you suited up. Whichever is faster."

* * *

In complete silence, the newest pilot lay in the cockpit of the newest Gundam suit, within the confines of the freighter's cargo bay. There was barely enough evidence of life to think a mouse was aboard. The suit prevented a heat signature from escaping. The whisper of breath was almost nonexistent. The heart beat was slowed as far as the body could bear. It would only be time before a single red light indicated the company of the other Gundam pilots. Only then would it be safe to move.

* * *

There was a crackle of static before Wufei adjusted the radio frequency. Heero's steady, calculating voice came through without visual. 

"...Sixteen suits. Three rings of decreasing number, with one alone in the center on the freighter itself. Pilot most likely inside the freighter. We cannot risk damage to..."

Duo's voice cut in. "And that means that we have to draw them out rather than attacking full on."

"Perhaps you should tell us something we do not already know." Wufei said sharply.

"We do not have time to argue. Trowa will stay back until we have them away from the center. The rest of you, let's go." An audible click punctuated the conversation as Heero turned off his radio manually.

* * *

It was almost time. There had been talking on the frequency the suit's radio was set to monitor. The other Gundams were close now; the new pilot could feel it. The carefully suppressed heart rate began to climb and shallow breathing became deeper as the pilot took themselves out of their nearly comatose state.

* * *

Quatre was so surprised by the sudden life signature on his display that he forgot to dodge the attack of the suit he was engaging. The bean sword's strike, thankfully, was caught by the edge of Sand Rock's shield. "There's someone alive!" He called over the radio to his friends, pushing away from his opponent to find a moment of peace. "In the cargo bay, they're alive." 

With a triumphant laugh, Duo finished off the last of the suits that had formed the center ring of five. "I'm going in!" He declared, disregarding a warning from Trowa. The Death Scythe flew past the guard of the inner ring of suits, Duo's determined face almost plastered to the view screen in his cockpit.

Something unexpected happened before he had come close enough to try and board the ship. The blade of a beam saber pierced the armor of the freighter, from the inside. Duo had only a split second to dodge before the contents of the cargo bay were blown into space. Along with a few barrels of miscellaneous junk and building supplies was the Gundam Howard had mentioned. All things considered, it looked rather plain. It held a beam saber that, when unused, docked in the left shoulder. The pilot was in the process of drawing the weapon's twin from the right. There were guns mounted on the shoulders as well, and a panel on each leg that possibly held a number of projectiles. Nothing Duo saw would warrant its production taking half again the time of the other suits. There was a split second where the Gundam itself turned to face Death Scythe, as if staring down a rival, before Duo's trajectory took him out of range for such a thing.

A radio link was established between the new suit and the boys' existing network. It was faulty though, carrying only a degraded and broken audio signal. "Thank...for help...But we...get out...trap... box..."

"Did anyone ever stop to consider the situation's potential as a trap?" Trowa asked over the static coming from the new link.

A grim, "No," was the only answer Trowa received.

"I think we should think about getting out of here..." Duo said warily, eyeing the fresh set of statistics on his read out.

"There's a solid wall of suits coming this way." Wufei did not sound pleased.

"Retreat." Came through clearly from the new suit.

"I have to agree on this one..." Quatre said, already backing himself away from the approaching force.

"The mission is a success. Pull out."


	2. Welcome to the team Whoever you are

The new pilot was the first onto the catwalk. Dannie paused only a second to pull a small knapsack from a hidden compartment before shutting the hatch. One would have thought that the pilot was hiding a secret in the cockpit.

Howard was there to greet the new arrival. Giving him a once over, the old man raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Don't..." Was all the pilot said.

"They'll find out sooner or later, Dannie." Howard replied with a shrug.

"Better later." Was all Dannie had time to say before Quatre came up behind Howard.

"I'm glad you're alright." The blonde said with a smile, extending his hand to the newcomer.

Dannie looked at his hand for a moment before shaking it, keeping silent.

Duo came up from the other side. "Nice entrance, tyro," he laughed, slapping Dannie on the back.

"Tyro?" Trowa asked.

"Novice?" Duo shakes his head, having expected the others to know the meaning of his banter.

Heero walked on past the little gathering on the cat walk, not caring to stay in the company of others longer than he had to. Wufei, however, was curious of the new pilot's identity. "Are you going to live in your helmet?" He asked, after taking off his own.

A tense silence passed, broken only when Howard laughed nervously. "Dannie isn't much of a talker."

"That doesn't mean you have to hide in your helmet." Duo said, poking at the visor covering Dannie's eyes.

Dannie's response was very much like what Heero's would have been. Batting away Duo's hand, a grumpy 'Hn' as the only verbal reply, the quiet pilot walked away to go find himself a quiet room.

"Bah, he'll come around." Duo said with a shrug.

"Eventually." Quatre's tone was hopeful.

* * *

At dinner, Dannie decided to make an appearance at the table. Helmet and flight suit off, he now wore a baggy gray sweat suit and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. He talked less than Heero as the food was being served.

Even Duo was quiet for the beginning of the meal. Everyone was thinking about the overwhelming force that had been heading towards them before they had pulled out. It had been a solid wall of soldiers in a new type of mobile suit. The odds were daunting.

"War is a terrible thing." Quatre said quietly, pushing his potatoes around on his plate.

"You get the most of what you need least." Duo replied half heartedly.

Another stretch of silence passed. This time it was broken by Dannie. "After dinner we need to meet in the briefing room."

"Which is here," Wufei told him, "once the table is cleared."

"Oh..." Lowering his head and hiding his face further, Dannie went back to his meal.

"Why?" Heero's ice blue eyes seemed almost capable of seeing through the baseball cap Dannie hid beneath.

"Enemy Tactics," was mumbled into his glass of water.

Silence reclaimed the room until the end of the meal. Dannie helped Quatre clear the table before disappearing down the hallway.

"I thought we had to discuss tactics." Duo was grumpy. He still hadn't gotten as much sleep as he would have liked.

"Maybe he went to get something." Wufei offered. Duo simply shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

A minute or so later Dannie returned from his room. Under one arm was a laptop. Held in the other hand was a disk in a paper sheath. The laptop was dropped rather unceremoniously onto the table. He seemed aggravated as he pulled the little switch that powered up the machine, and stuffed the disk into the slot. After a few moments of typing, he turned the screen around so the others could see. On the screen was a basic, three dimensional model of an area of space. Six red dots took up the center of the model. "Strategy."

"Dots..." Duo laughed. "What do the dots stand for?"

"Us." He replied curtly, reaching around to hit a key. "White is the enemy." Knowing how the sequence ran once activated, Dannie described it as it played out. "Small, straight on attack. Flanks close in on either side, above and below. A Reserve force closes in from behind."

"Leaving us trapped." Quatre said dismally.

"The strategy's been around for centuries." Duo frowned. "And something lasting that long has to work."

"When you have the numbers." Trowa shook his head.

"Any way out?" Heero posed a simple question, with an unwelcome answer.

"Avoid it." Dannie shrugged slightly, considering a second option. "Concentrated, brute force."

"Does this program have actual battle data uploaded to it, or is it just a demonstration?" Quatre was already thinking tactics, his brain wrapping around the problem of overcoming a strategy proved by centuries of use.

Dannie slid the laptop over closer to him, and handed him the slip cover of the CD. On the back was a list of shortcut keys for the program. "Keep it for a while."

Quatre nodded, looking at the screen rather than at the owner of the laptop. "Hmm...I'll get this back to you later, Dannie."

* * *

Their next encounter with the new enemy served them heavy losses. Most of all, Dannie's suit sustained massive damage. They won, barely, and were forced to limp back to ship to nurse their wounds. Quatre and Duo had made it to the catwalk first, and both waited below Dannie's suit for the others.

Dannie's hatch opened less than an inch before the gears and mechanics began to protest and strain. It closed itself before attempting to open again. Even a third try yielded no gain.

"You alright in there Dannie?" Duo called to him, somewhat concerned.

An affirmative, followed by muffled curses were heard from inside the suit before the hatch closed again. There was a tense moment while the boys waited for their fellow pilot to emerge.

Passing by, even Heero paused to see what the matter was. "Dannie's hatch is stuck" was as much of an explanation as he stayed for before walking by.

A small hatch a few feet below the cockpit opened itself, revealing a service hidey hole stuffed full of wires and electronics. Dannie literally fell out of the opening once the door was no longer there to bear his weight.

Duo was the first to react, and also closest to Dannie. Stepping forward, he caught the pilot as best he could. Duo ended up head butting him in the chest, but still managed to keep him from sustaining any injuries. "I think you need to take a trip to the infirmary."

Dannie groaned, trying to right himself and disengage from Duo's arms.. "I'm fine..." Coughing, he backed away from the others, and right into Trowa.

"Take off your helmet. It's easier to breathe that way." Before Dannie even had a chance to protest, Trowa had removed the headgear.

Everyone except for Trowa caught sight of, for the first time, the pilot's entire face. Dannie's features were harsh, but extremely feminine. Eyes the color of coal flashed wide for a moment before he turned away from everyone. Snatching the helmet from Trowa, he strode off in the direction of the infirmary. Half way to the end of the catwalk, he collapsed.

Ever present, Howard seemed to appear out of nowhere beside Dannie. "One of you boys want to help me here?" He called, kneeling down beside the fallen pilot.

Wufei had sustained the least damage, and had been the only one to finish off his breakfast. Nodding to the others, he jogged over to Howard and Dannie. "Let me help."

* * *

Heero sat in his bed, staring down at a deep gash he had received when his suit had been slammed by a missile barrage. A roll of gauze was held in the hand of his other arm, being spun around impatiently. The would was in an awkward position, and he wouldn't be able to bandage it properly without help. He hated asking for help. It was like sticking his neck out and handing his enemy a sword. It showed his weakness, and that was unacceptable.

"Hey Heero." Duo's voice broke his train of thought. "Nasty cut there. Want some help with it?"

"Hn..." Heero needed the help. Better to let the braided boy think he was just being thoughtful rather than doing something necessary. Heero tossed his roommate the gauze.

Catching it, the American sat down next to him on the bed. "There's something odd about Dannie." He said out of the blue as he began wrapping Heero's arm.

"He's different from us."

"And the Gundam. It seems so...basic, Ill equipped. Nothing but the beam sabers and a couple missiles." Duo shook his head, letting his hands fall after tying off the gauze. He didn't move from the bed though.

"There is some sort of rechargeable energy weapon embedded in the arms." Heero did wonder why it had taken the scientists so long to complete this final, yet seemingly simple, design.

"Maybe it has a different control system?" Duo was stalling now. There was something bothering him about the pilot and the gundam, but he was at a loss as to what it was.

"Possibility." Heero narrowed his eyes at the side of the other man's head. He'd been sitting unnecessarily close to begin with, and now he remained. Duo always managed to confuse Heero's sense of independence.

"I finally got to see Dannie's face today. When he got out, Trowa took off his helmet." Heero listened in silence as Duo went on. "Looks a little like you, only more girlish. A lot more girlish. That's probably the reason he's been hiding his face so much. If I had seen him for the first time in his flight suit, without the helmet, I would have thought he was a girl."

Heero shook his head, taking the gauze as he stood up. "Everyone has their reasons."

Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.


	3. Hello! My Name is

Kaito Endari grinned, only a touch of static crossing the image of his face as his child watched. "You know you can't come up here with me, Dannie. Your mom needs you down there anyway. What if the town gets attacked, like it did last time, hmm?"

Dannie frowned. "Dad, you know you've taught her enough to be able to take care of herself. I want to be up there with you, making a difference. Not sitting on my butt, watching the army and the Gundams get all the action."

"Now Dannie,"

Dannie cut him off. "I don't even care if I have to work for the army, I want to fight!"

"You know your suit isn't finished yet." Kaito shook his head, holding up a hand to keep Dannie quiet. "And it's been arranged so that, in a month, you'll be off helping that old man on his ship. But until then, you need to sit tight, and just make sure you take care of the house."

A woman's scream cut through the momentary silence between parent and child. "Danielle!"

Kaito jumped out of his seat, almost as if trying to leap through the screen that separated him from his house. "Jessica!"

Dannie bolted out of the room. In the next room, Jessica was pinned under a collapsed wall. Dannie ran forward, reaching out to help. "Mother!" Before anything could be accomplished, Dannie was lifted from the house by the hand of a mobile suit.

"Mother!" Dannie sat bolt upright in his bed in the infirmary, arms outstretched in an attempt to help his mother, years dead beneath that collapsed wall. Eyes wide, the last few bits of the dream memory still obscured his vision. There was someone there, in a chair beside the bed. Dannie felt the sheet slip from his chest, through the fog that clouded his senses. Something was wrong with that, but Dannie couldn't think of what it could be.

As the form in the chair beside the bed came into focus, so did that thought. Quatre was sitting there, mouth hanging open and face turning red at the sight of Dannie suddenly awake, and sitting up without any covering. In a scrambled motion, Dannie pulled the sheet up over their chest, pulling their knees up as well to make sure it better stayed put.

Quatre worked his mouth in silence, overcoming his shock enough to close his eyes. "You...You...I...but..." He shook his head, putting a hand over his eyes, shaking his head.

Dannie uttered a single word. "Danielle."

Quatre spent almost a full five minutes trying to regain his composure. Finally, he opened his eyes again and asked, "Why?"

"I didn't want you to think I was less capable. Well, not you. You have so many sisters I know you can't be as prejudiced as the others." Dannie was rambling, but didn't care. "But...they'd start doing stupid things to keep me from getting hit in battle, and we'd never get anything done." Trowa walked in, to check on both Quatre and Dannie, but the newer pilot didn't even notice. "It was necessary. You all would have taken much more damage than you had if you had known, during the last battle. I brought the matter up, and then I was ordered to do what I had been planning to do anyway, so I couldn't change my mind." Dannie was beginning to get angry at this point. "Howard had been told to keep me isolated if I was injured severely enough to end up here, but apparently he didn't. He must have set this up, let you come in here. He was against the idea from the start. He thought it would just be more trouble when you found out, but..."

Trowa, now thoroughly confused, finally spoke up. "When we found out what?"

Dannie turned to him, and then promptly lay down and pulled the sheet over her head. "Nothing."

"The way you were talking, It can't be 'nothing.'"

Quatre frowned. "It's just that, you see, Dannie is..."

Dannie cut him off from her place under the sheets. "Quatre, don't. Like I said, it will just get everyone all worked up. If you don't say anything, nothing will change, and no one will get hurt more than they have to."

"But you will get hurt more than you have to." Quatre tried to argue.

"Don't even get like that. With all your sisters, I know you know what women are capable of. You don't think that, given training like Heero had, one of them couldn't be up here working with us right now?" Dannie pulled the sheet to her shoulders in order to scowl at the blonde.

Trowa looked around, from Quatre's concerned eyes to those of Dannie. Then he scanned the room to see if anyone else was in hearing range. There was no one. "You know, Dannie, that with all the yelling you've been doing, it isn't hard for me to guess what it is what you are trying to hide. I can assure you that, one way or another, Duo and Heero will found out for themselves eventually. Even without one of us slipping. Duo knows you're odd, different from us. He's determined to find out why. As for WuFei, I don't know if he will care enough to know if he isn't told. But he would find out from the other two. It's no use hiding it anymore."

Dannie continued to glare, now changing her target to Trowa. She couldn't fight his logic, she knew as well as he did that she couldn't argue. "Fine. Whatever. I'll bring it up at breakfast tomorrow. I should be eating with you again by then."

"So soon? Are you sure you'll be alright?" Quatre was genuinely concerned. "They say you've bruised half your ribs, and you have a minor concussion."

"I'm sure." She frowned, looking around for the ace bandages that would have saved her from this whole mess. They weren't anywhere to be found. "And could you do me a favor?"

Quatre nodded. "Sure, if I can."

"Make sure the med staff gives me back my ace bandages. Or at least some ace bandages. I'm going to need them." Dannie sighed, turning to lay on her side. "But for now, I'm going back to sleep. I need the rest."

"Of course. I'll see that they are returned to you." Quatre smiled.

Dannie found herself asleep once more before the pair were even out of the room.

* * *

Duo threw himself into his chair, nearly tipping over backwards in the process. He didn't care though. Letting his elbows crash down onto the table, his chin met his palms. As Heero turned to look at him, the American let his face slide until his hands were covering his eyes.

"Something wrong?" Quatre asked, as he set a bowl of soup in front of the agitated man.

"Yeah, but I can't figure out what." Frowning, Duo removed his face from his hands. "It's really been buggin' me," he said, taking a spoon and chopping absently at the vegetable chunks with it, "about Dannie, I mean. There's something weird about him..." He shook his head, braid waving around behind him. "I just can't figure out what it is, and it's driving me crazy."

"I have a feeling you'll find out soon enough." Trowa said absently, not paying much attention to anything.

"How's he doing, anyway?" Duo asked, turning to the blonde sitting beside him.

"Dannie's doing alright." Frowning slightly, Quatre paid more attention to his words than one would think necessary. "He thinks he'll be back with us for breakfast tomorrow. Although he looks to badly hurt for that...but who am I to judge?"

"You've seen plenty of injury, Quatre. I would trust your judgment." Wufei sat down with his own bowl of soup, though by the way he was looking at it, one could tell that he was not particularly interested in it.

"Like Duo says, she's odd." Quatre shrugged. He then realized his slip up, and clamped his mouth shut. Hopefully they wouldn't notice.

Quatre, however, was out of luck. In this group, it was hard for anything out of the ordinary to go unnoticed.

Trowa glanced at his blonde friend, but it was Wufei who spoke. "Did you say 'she'?"

Under the Asian's gaze, Quatre tried to shrink into nonexistence. He failed. "Um, no...I didn't." To keep from answering further, he filled his mouth with soup.

"He did." Heero said quietly.

"She?" Duo seemed the most startled by the slip out of everyone.

"Let Dannie explain over breakfast tomorrow," was all Trowa had to add to the conversation.

* * *

Dannie was thrashing around on the bed early the next morning, still trapped in her dream. "Dad, no!" Tangled in the sheet, she managed to thrash right off the bed. Still, her body refused to wake. "Dad! Come back here!" Shivering from the cold of the tiles, she continued to dream. "I don't care about my uncle! You still have to teach me. I need to fight! ...No! No, no, no! I want you to train me, not some old man! I don't care what they say you have to do. They don't control you! NO! LET ME GO!"

Walking by the infirmary on the way to the gym, Heero was surprised by the yelling. Enough so that he went into the room. He saw, on the floor, Dannie thrashing around. Kneeling beside her, he restrained her arms enough to keep her from hurting herself. He was taken back by how strong she was, even in her sleep. He could barely hold her arms by her sides.

"NO! You let go of me! I don't care if I'm your daughter, you have no right to do this!" All of a sudden, her eyes snapped open and she gained consciousness. Looking left and right, she saw her arms restrained, and noticed that she was laying on the floor rather than the bed.

Her violent outburst at an end, Heero let her free and stepped back. He stood silently, watching her.

With a deep intake of breath, Dannie gathered the sheet around her and stood up. The medics had stripped her down to her underwear, and she still hadn't the chance to dress herself again. "Nightmares." She said simply, looking down at the tiles.

"You're strong." Heero said, his own small way of trying to take her mind off of it.

She nodded. "My father..." Hesitating, she shook her head and started again. "Fighting is in my blood. I've been training since I was old enough to know what fighting was."

"Hn..." Heero looked away. He knew what that was like, to some extent.

"You can go now. I'm alright." She looked down at the sheet wrapped around her body, wishing suddenly that the material was thicker.

Heero nodded, and left her alone.

* * *

A few minutes later, Dannie was in the middle of getting dressed when the door was nearly knocked down. She had found and donned her pants, and was in the middle of binding her chest with the ace bandages when Duo's voice assaulted her ears.

"Dannie, are you alright? I heard you..." Eyes bugging out once he realized what he was seeing, Duo did an about face and slapped a hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry...I must be in the wrong room. I'm dead now, aren't I?"

Dannie sighed, shaking her head at his behavior. Trowa was right. It was inevitable that everyone would find out, no matter what she did. "You have the right room, Duo."

"Do I?" Duo shook his head, careful to keep from looking at her again. He'd had a few bad incidents with accidentally walking in on a woman getting dressed, and he didn't want a repeat of the repercussions.

She finished what she was doing, and pulled her shirt over her head. "You can turn around now."

Duo did as he was told he could, taking his hand down from his face. His head tilted to one side as he looked her over. "You're not going to hit me, are you?"

Dannie shook her head. "Not your fault." She picked her shirt up off the bed, pulling it on as she asked "What were you saying when you came in?"

"I, uh, heard some yelling from down here not to long ago. I can't quite, er, jump through floors with nothing but boxers on so I, ah, took the long way to come check on you...Make sure you weren't in trouble or anything...I guess..." Rubbing the back of his neck with a hand, Duo seemed a bit lost for words.

Dannie frowned, looking around for her hat. It was probably up in her room rather than with her in the med wing, but she looked anyway. Predictably, she found nothing. Lacking her headgear, she was forced to focus on Duo. Something about yelling and boxers...Clearing her head, she tried to explain somewhat. "I was having a...violent dream. Heero came in and woke me up. Nothing worth jumping through floors for." She smirked, seeing if she could agitate him through his surprise.

Duo did seem agitated, but more over something other than her teasing. The braided boy pushed it aside, and let his stomach lead his mind to other things. "Breakfast is probably ready...or at least everyone will be up eating soon. I think our stove is actually working today, so we can make eggs." Duo offered Dannie a haphazard smile.

"Sounds good to me," she replied, and motioned for him to lead the way.

* * *

In the kitchen, the gundam pilots were already assembled to meet Duo and Dannie. Wufei was contemplating an omelet in his usual seat a space away from an already fed Heero, who was sitting still as stone, waiting for something. Quatre grinned at the two new arrivals from the stove before turning to prod a pair of fried eggs in his frying pan. Sitting near where Quatre stood, Trowa was waiting patiently for his turn at the stove.

Duo let himself fall into his regular chair, deciding that his stomach could wait ten minutes for eggs. Dannie left the seat next to Trowa for the blonde cook, and sat between Heero and Wufei: the only two in the room who did not yet know the secret she had been ordered to keep. Both sets of eyes turned to her. Shrinking away and keeping silent was not an option; Danielle had some explaining to do.

Trowa moved to replace Quatre at the stove, but was surprised when the Arabian put a plate down in front of him. Duo grinned and all but leapt out of his chair and to the stove. That was another five minutes Dannie didn't have to wait for her turn.

Quatre glanced at Danielle, his way of reassuring her that the sooner she explained things, the easier it would be. She knew that, of course, but simply confirming what the pilots believed could be detrimental to their entire mission. The last thing they needed was to spend a battle protecting her instead of letting her fight.

As Duo's eggs hit the pan with an almost deafening sizzle in the silence, Danielle shook her head. No use stalling any longer. "I suppose I should get around to actually introducing myself to you..." Taking a deep breath, she paused to see that she had everyone's attention.


End file.
